And the mystery foot belonged to .....

Fred! 

Fred mid Oct 10

Fred end Feb 11

This horse has gone from strength to strength.  No more tripping and he looks years younger.

Barefoot Fred - loses his stilettos and turns back the clock

LH - left 14/10/10; right 01/12/10

This is Fred, first met in October.  He used to trip, a lot!.  The hoof care professional looking after him was unwilling to remove any hoof height 'couldn't be done'.

So to start with on 14/10/10 (left hand picture) we removed his shoes.  He stopped tripping after his first post deshoeing trim.  Since then he has been hacking mostly on the road, but also on some softer field and woodland surfaces. 

With two further trims and his own efforts you can see the foot is much shorter.

Buff/orange line - to help me line up coronary bands
Red lines (both the same length) - to check I've sized the pictures properly
Red circle - nail holes
Blue lines (both the same length) - shows the difference in toe length of hoof

His 'Mum' commented yesterday that he is in overall better health, seems younger, happier and more comfortable (to ride) and in himself.  And he is standing so much better too - and he is 'smiling' :-)

We still have to work on decontraction and somewhat dodgy frogs, but not bad for under 7 weeks :-)

Tripping

There are lots of reasons why a horse trips.  But a very common one is poor foot form. So let's use the foot from yesterday as an example -and provide the extra shots requested.

Compare this foot with the mustang foot

Note:

Heel in suspension

Coronary band distorted

Quarters need relieving

Very long/tall

Toe heavily rasped

Although this is a hind foot (and hinds have a slightly different shape), you can see how the relationship with the red rectangle are quite different to those of Fred's front.  From this view and for the purpose of comparing relationships the fact that one is a hind and the other a front doesn't matter too much.

Hoof does not appear balanced

Outer wall heavily rasped, inner wall can be seen at toe

Event lines

Deviation

Shoe slipped

Impinging on frog

Thrush

Contraction

Heel very high

Contracted

Thrushy

Lateral cartilages skinny and under developed

Remember the owner has done her very best to seek professional advice for her horse and the farrier has done their best too, according to how they have been trained. The purpose of this blog is not to point fingers or criticise, but to try and illustrate good and bad examples of hoof form, so that we can all do a better job of caring for our horses in the future.

After all, the welfare of our horses comes first.

What would you think?

Met a truly fab lady the other day who clearly loves her horse (we will call him Fred) and puts his needs first.  They are both just beginning the journey that so many of us have found ourselves on.  The scenario goes like this:

Fred  is constantly tripping, has had two abscesses in one year and maggots in one foot.  His carer has sought professional advice from more than one source, but Fred continues to trip.  Fred is shod every six weeks, seen by a vet when needed and has every care and attention lavished on him.

Because so many of us start the barefoot journey with similar scenarios I thought it might be useful to hand over the commentary to readers for this one.  So just based on the picture below; what would you think and what other views of the hoof would you like to see?

And on behalf of all readers and the horses that benefit - thank you to Carer and Fred for allowing us to use these photos.